Temperate/sub Tropical Tank Suggestions

Hi all,

All being well I will be moving house in the next few weeks, and my wife has agreed we can upgrade the tank. I like the look of the Fluval Roma 240l as it has the pipework for the external filter plumbed in through the base, so no hoses hanging out of the tank. I have also decided to go sub-tropical to save a few pounds on the electric bill. Haven't checked water yet, but assumed fairly hard and pH around 7.5.

I'm thinking about stocking:
6 x Denison barbs
12 x Odessa barbs
6 x Panda Garra
+ a shoal of smaller schooling fish.

I know that Leopard/Zebra and Glowlight Danios are happy in a subtropical tank, as are Bloodfin and Buenos Aires Tetra. I have ruled out the Buenos Aires Tetra due to their penchant for greenery. Has anyone kept Bloodfins? Would they be okay with Denison Barbs?  CC says they're too small...

Does anyone have any other suggestions? 

A 240L tank, which I assume would be 120 cms, is about the bottom limit for Denison's Barb.

Have you seen the following from Seriously Fish?
"Since it naturally occurs in pristine habitats it is intolerant to accumulation of organic pollutants and requires more-or-less spotless water in order to thrive. It also does best if there is a high proportion of dissolved oxygen and moderate water movement, and weekly water changes of 30-50% tank volume should be considered routine." That's a lot of water changing! They are also pretty expensive fish so it's worth making sure you can definitely cope with this before buying them.

I think it's never a good idea to mix fish of widely differing sizes. Apart from elements of food competition, I just don't think they look right. I'd be tempted to go for another barb type, such as Golden or Rosy. Glowlight danios can be a bit timid, but Zebra/Leopard can hold their own with anything.

What about paradise fish? They look pretty amazing.

Hi Cod

I have a sub tropical tank and though there are limited fish ideal for it, I do enjoy it.  Have you thought about peppered coreys as they are one of the larger coreys and are suited to your temperature range.

The hardest thing about the tank being sub tropical is keeping it cool in the summer.

Anne

There was a string on here from last summer about cooling down tanks. 

My tank is normally 19oC, last summer it went up to 24-25oC on the odd really days (I live in the north east so there aren't that many), I found the best thing to do was to turn the heater off - it was off for most of July, August and September, take the lid off and when the temperature still wouldn't drop turn the lights out.  The lights made a big difference, in fact I tended to only put them on when I got home from work, all my plants are easy care low light ones so they were OK.

Anne

That's very interesting. The house is fairly new and is very well insulated. I'm hoping this means it'll keep things warm in winter and cool in summer. Tank will be on the ground floor and away from windows, but I do live in the south east and it can be toasty here on occasion...